I’d been listening to NPR the other morning going to the office and happened to catch a story about how the USDA has revamped the food pyramid. You no doubt know which one I am talking about, grains at the base, and then the fruits and vegetables, meat as well as dairies after which a little place on the tip for oils, fats and sweets. No first grade course could have been complete with out a detailed course on the classic food pyramid.

Well, the USDA has opted to not only give the food pyramid an entirely new look, but change the approach we take to consider our meals. The new My Plate has taken the pyramid we all know and cherish and altered it into a plate.

The plate includes four food groups instead of the six that we grew up with. Veggies and whole grains form almost all of the recommended nutritional daily allowance along with fresh fruits and healthy proteins filling in the gaps. Dairy is actually suggested as a glass of milk and it has been placed off to the side, possibly suggesting that milk products need to be used more sparingly than anything else.

Combined with the fresh look are some new recommendations, which I happen to think are not merely great tips to teach our children, but also for weight loss in general. There’s been a lot of debate about the new look of our classic food pyramid, with some individuals implying that that the new My Plate fails to get results. Even so, It’s my opinion that the new My Plate together with the nutritional tips made by the USDA actually compare quite well. Let us take a glance. Among the recommendations, balancing caloric intake by eating smaller amounts and making the effort to enjoy your food.

Balance Your Calories

One of several suggestions is to balance calories by eating smaller portions and making the effort to relish your meal. This is an exceptional idea and has been shown that enjoying small meals a day rather than 1-2 massive meals will help you drop a few pounds. Taking in smaller servings of foods are something Europeans are familiar with engaging in, the fact is, it had been something many Americans used to be familiar with at one time as well. Taking in a smaller amount and more frequently is easy enough to achieve. I’m sure the actual doubt here is whether restaurants will follow suit by providing scaled-down, more realistic helpings?

Increase Healthy Food

My Plate suggests increasing your intake of healthy food by basing at least half of the food we eat on a regular basis around fruits and vegetables. Even though quite a few people harped about the plate not being specific enough, the USDA site does include recommendations concerning how to accomplish this. They highly recommend fresh and steamed produce over frozen and fresh fruit over canned.

An additional recommendation is to add to the number of whole grains that you consume to at least one 1 / 2 of your day-to-day intake. While this is a fantastic suggestion, I think eating 100% of one’s daily grain consumption as whole grains will likely be significantly better and bring about enhanced weight reduction and wellbeing.

Reduce Sugar and Salt

Seems to be a no brainer, but it’s quite simple to unknowingly take in foods that have a very high sugar or sodium content with out even realizing it. One of the suggestions which the new My Plate sets is to create a practice of reading food labels to determine the amount of salt that they contain. Keep in mind when reading labels that the USDA recommends less than 2,300mg per day.

One more tip is to drink water instead of sugary beverages which is a really easy technique to decrease your daily sugar intake. Research shows that men and women usually tend to gain the most weight by what they drink, not what they eat. The majority of us don’t actually consider the quantity of sugar we place into our systems when consuming a can of soda pop or perhaps juice.

The Wrap Up

Although the new My Plate is very different from the food pyramid most people have come to know and love, it presents America another way of examining food in addition to portion size. Change can be difficult, especially when that change happens to something we have been so accustomed to. Nonetheless, many times, change is smart.